VMware Launches Micro Cloud Foundry Beta

VMware delivers a beta version of Micro Cloud Foundry, an implementation of the company's open platform as a service offering that runs on a developer's computer.

VMware has
announced the availability of a beta version of its new Micro Cloud Foundry
platform as a service (PaaS) offering.
Available as a
free download at http://micro.cloudfoundry.com,
Micro Cloud Foundry is a complete version of VMware's Cloud Foundry that runs
on a developer's Mac or PC.

The new
offering enables developers to build end-to-end cloud applications locally,
without the hassles of configuring middleware while preserving the choice of
where to deploy and the ability to scale their applications without changing a
line of code. Cloud
Foundry, announced
in April, is an open PaaS solution that delivers access to modern, high-productivity
frameworks and features a rich ecosystem of application services from VMware,
third parties and the open-source community.

Micro Cloud
Foundry runs directly on a developers' machine and offers developers a choice
of frameworks, application infrastructure services and clouds in which to
deploy applications, Jerry Chen, vice president of cloud and application
services at VMware, said in an interview with eWEEK.
"VMware
recognizes there is a new generation of developers looking for a simpler
approach to building and testing their applications," Charlotte Dunlap, an
analyst with Current Analysis, said in a statement. "With this technology,
VMware supports the growing need for developers to work on their laptops with
an open, lightweight platform that minimizes configuration requirements and
speeds application development."
"Today VMware
is taking another significant step forward in delivering a modern cloud
application platform ideal for the hybrid cloud environment, by delivering the industry's
only PaaS solution that can be run on an individual developer's laptop," Chen
said in a statement. "Micro Cloud Foundry gives developers a full cloud
development environment that combines all the flexibility of local development
with the ability to deploy and scale their applications anywhere in the
future. Micro Cloud Foundry gives developers the ability to build
cutting-edge cloud applications while exploring the latest developer frameworks
and application services without configuration hassles."
The first
version of Micro Cloud Foundry supports: Spring for Java; Ruby on Rails and
Sinatra; Node.js; Grails and other JVM-based frameworks, including Scala Lift;
and MongoDB, MySQL and Redis application services. VMware plans to include
support for additional VMware vFabric services in future versions of Micro
Cloud Foundry
In an
Aug. 24 blog post about Micro Cloud Foundry, Steve Herrod, chief technology
officer at VMware, said: "Many developers are already using the Cloud Foundry
open-source bits to build their local versions of Cloud Foundry. Micro Cloud
Foundry will make this process significantly easier and will enable developers
to easily -shrink the cloud' to their local machine and experiment with
cutting-edge technologies without the hassles of installations and
configurations."
Micro Cloud
Foundry is the third element of Cloud Foundry to become available. The first
two, which debuted April 12, are CloudFoundry.com,
a public cloud PaaS environment; and CloudFoundry.org,
an open-source project that allows developers and community members to
collaborate and contribute to the Cloud Foundry project.
Micro Cloud
Foundry supports Cloud Foundry's scriptable command line interface and
integration with the Eclipse-based SpringSource Tool Suite (STS), which allows
developers to retarget deployments between on-premise and public environments
without code modifications, Chen said.
Available as a
downloadable virtual machine image, Micro Cloud Foundry is compatible
with VMware Fusion for Mac OS X and VMware Workstation and VMware Player
(available as a free download) for Linux and Windows computers. It provides
easy installation, setup and virtual machine management.
Meanwhile, the
interest in CloudFoundry.com continues to grow with the number of beta users
more than doubling and the number of applications more than tripling since the
offering was unveiled in April 2011. CloudFoundry.org has already received
hundreds of material contributions from the open-source community, including
additional frameworks and languages such as Erlang,
JRuby, PHP and Python as well as data services such as Neo4J.
VMware will
provide regular Micro Cloud Foundry updates to include additional frameworks
and services. VMware continues to drive core innovation to Cloud Foundry by
adding new frameworks and languages, such as Lift
and Scala, as well as
releasing a Hyperic
plug-in for Cloud Foundry that provides increased monitoring and visibility
to applications.

Darryl K. Taft covers the development tools and developer-related issues beat from his office in Baltimore. He has more than 10 years of experience in the business and is always looking for the next scoop. Taft is a member of the Association for Computing Machinery (ACM) and was named 'one of the most active middleware reporters in the world' by The Middleware Co. He also has his own card in the 'Who's Who in Enterprise Java' deck.